you know, with big risks, it's like investments, come big rewards. we could also lose. >> communications with "columbia" were lost at about 8:00 a.m. central time. >> risk. you just accept it. >> can you imagine how much difficulty people went through and how scared they were in the transition from horses to cars? but you got to make these transitions. otherwise society doesn't move forward. >> so far, musk's spacex "falcon 9" rocket has performed well. >> two, one. >> on the last test, the rocket put a spacecraft call ed "dragon" into orbit. the capsule landed back in the pacific. it was the first time anyone other than a government had successfully orbited a spacecraft and returned it to earth. >> we designed this to be super tough. you can beat the snot out of it and it will still work. >> next year musk hopes to begin carrying cargo to the international space station. eventually astronauts, a commercial company, replacing the space shuttle. >> confirmed. it is complete. >> but unless it's safe, nasa's administrator says no u.s. astronaut will be